“We planned our budgets for a 7% to 8% growth this year, so we are optimistic. We will continue to focus on the growth and differentiation strategy. We have growth goals for all categories, chicken, ready meal, eggs and salami and I hope my team will come up with something new this year, too,” says George Horoi, chairman of the Agricola group, which sees more than EUR150 million revenue a year.
He noticed Romanian consumers have become more careful with spending, which is partly because of the current political situation of the country.
A GFK survey shows confidence in the economy and the expectations about incomes dropped sharply in the last quarter of last year, to similar lows to 2013 and 2014, with the governmental crisis making an impact on consumer sentiment.
Radu Timis, the owner of Cris-Tim, the largest local cold cuts manufacturer, says he saw flat consumption of food in February, and blames it on the uncertainty and on some expenses having gone up.
“We budgeted 12% to 13% higher volumes for this year and 20% higher revenue. In January, we posted growth of 6% in volume. In February, the food market only went up 1%. People are spending less, and I think this is because of the uncertainty surrounding the future and the rise in expenses. This has happened before,” Radu Timis said.
The owner of Cris-Tim, an about EUR145 million business with more than 2,000 employees, is optimistic and thinks 2018 will be a very good year.
Growth is what poultry and pork processor Kosarom Pascani expects, as well.
“Our revenue was flat last year. We budgeted growth of 12% in 2018, mostly from EU sales. We are optimistic this year,” said Neculai Apostol, founder of Kosarom. The group exports about 20% of its production to countries like Spain and Germany. He says he saw slightly lower sales in January, which is natural at the beginning of the year. Moreover, the Great Lent ahead of Easter affects sales of meat, especially in Moldavia.
The meat market, put at about EUR3 billion, sees consumption peaks mainly during the holidays.
Catalin Moraru, the entrepreneur who owns the Morandi group in Vaslui, whose annual revenue is about EUR13 million, too, expects growth. This year’s growth should amount to 8% to 10%.
The owner of Unicarm group in Satu Mare, Vasile Lucut, says the start of the wear was slower in terms of consumption, as it happens at the beginning of every year.
“We have a store chain and can notice a lower consumption of all products. We will be able to tell whether the year is good or not only by midyear,” Vasile Lucut said. His group’s annual revenue stands at EUR145 million, according to the latest data available.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)